By Gary Topping–
For most couples, their wedding night is one of the happiest events of their life, but it rarely makes the newspaper. My parents’ wedded bliss lasted less than one hour before it turned into hell and they became a major news story. Imagine my shock last week as I read the story below from The Western World, Bandon, Oregon’s weekly newspaper, November 26, 1936, p. 8.
“A 30-foot plunge by automobile into the cold waters of Elk river was the cruel reception received by Mr. and Mrs. Rex Topping of Bandon within an hour or their marriage Saturday night. Miraculously they escaped with their lives, but both were taken to the hospital in Port Orford where they remained several days for treatment.
“George Rex Topping and Texie Juanita Bell were married at the home of Rev. D. Loree in Bandon, the ceremony being performed in the presence of immediate members of both families. Immediately afterwards the happy couple left for Port Orford where Mr. Topping had engaged a cottage where they planned to reside.
“Shortly before reaching the Elk river bridge their car lights suddenly went out. In his attempt to stop the car and at the same time keep it on the highway in total darkness, the groom ran off the road on the east side of the bridge. The car plunged through a clump of Irish furze down a steep embankment and turned turtle just before it landed in the river in three feet of water, then turned on its side. The groom crawled out of the car in the water and managed to extricate his bride. Both were badly cut and bruised but received no broken bones.
“Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Truman, who were following the bride and groom in another car, were the first to discover the accident. They had missed the lights ahead of them. After crossing the bridge they turned back and learned from men living nearby that they had heard a crash. A yell in the dark brought answers from the middle of the stream and the Trumans rushed to the rescue.
“The groom is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Geo. P. Topping of this city and is well known as an electrician and radio expert, being associated with Rufus Truman in the local radio shop. The bride is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Bell of Buhl, Idaho. She is a sister of Mrs. Truman.”
Why had I never heard this story? As I worked my way through it in stunned disbelief, the tears started to come. If things had worked out only a tiny bit different that night, I would have never come into this world. I immediately grabbed my telephone and called my cousin in southern Oregon who, along with me, is the last of the Bandon Toppings. Had she ever heard this story? Yes, many times and in many versions. Why had I never heard it? I can barely speculate on an answer to that question.
Some explanatory notes:
Why were my parents married in a home instead of a church? On September 26, 1936, not even two months before their November 21 wedding, the entire town of Bandon had burned to the ground, including all seven of its churches. My parents were certainly not lacking in optimism: having just lost all their worldly possessions, they decided to get married anyway. That optimism was further borne out five years later when my mother gave birth to me—exactly one month before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor! What a world to bring a little kid into.
When the car hit the water and rolled onto its side, it was obviously my mother’s side because my dad was able to scramble out first. My mother never learned either to drive or to swim. Not that either skill would have helped that night, but I can only imagine her terror trapped in a vehicle she did not even know how to operate and slowly filling up with water in which she could not swim. Perhaps that’s why I never heard the story: she could not bring herself to relive the trauma.
Life is precious to all of us, but it’s a little more precious to me now that I know how close I came to missing out on it.
*Gary Topping is a writer and historian living in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is the retired archivist for the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City and has written many books and articles.
